Safety-bar for railroad fish-plates



(No Model,) I Q T. ODONN E LL,.Jr..

SAFETY BAR FOR RAILROAD FISHP'LATES. N0. 315,536. Patented Apr; 14, 1885.

Witnesses. Inventor.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TIMOTHY ODONNELL, JR, OF BRADFORD, PENNSYLVANIA.

SAFETY-BAR FOR RAILROAD FISH-PLATES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 315,536, dated April 14, 1885.

Application filed March 3, 1884.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, TIMOTHY ODONNELL, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing in Bradford, in the county of McKean and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety-Bars for Railroad Fish-Plates, of which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide the means for securely locking the nuts for holding the fish-plates in place to the rails, all of which will be fully and clearly hereinafter shown and explained by reference to the accompanying drawings, in Which Figure l is a side elevation of the invention, showing portions of the rails and fish-plate secured together. Fig. 2 is an, end view of a portion of the rail and the fish-plates and device for securing them in position.

The rails a a and fish-plates a a are secured together by the usual bolts and nuts, a,

a being the bolt-head. One of the fish-plates,

a is provided with two projecting pieces, 0 a, into which the safety-bar a is placed. This safety-bar is preferably made square to prevent it from turning; but any other form that will prevent it from turning will answer. On the projecting portion 0 is rigidly secured a spring, 0*, and in the safety-bar is a notch, 0, into which the end of the spring moves when the bar is in position. (See Fig. l.) The bar 0 is made smaller at the end 0 so as to have a shoulder to prevent it from sliding out that way, while the spring holds it from moving the other way.

(No model.)

The operation of the invention will be readily understood from the foregoing description I am aware that notched key-strips have been used in connection with metallic bands or frames inclosing the nuts on the bolts for clamping fish-plates, and that thin metal plates have been clamped between the nuts and the fish-plate and provided with guides to support a key-bar.

My invention is distinguished from these by the fact that the locking or key bar is supported by the fish-plate without the aid of auxiliary supports.

I claim as my invention The fish-plate having projecting transverse lugs provided with sockets, in combination r with a locking-bar supported in the sockets, one end of the bar being shouldered and the other having a notch, and a spring secured to one of the lugs and engaging with the notch in the locking-bar, substantially as described.

TIMOTHY ODONNELL, JR. Witnesses: i

H. LEO. WEIL, B. D. V. REEvn. 

